


Tokyo Rats

by the_duck_bride



Category: the GazettE
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Angst, Assassins, Dystopia, M/M, More tags to be added.., Post-Apocalypse, Rebels, Ruki is a grumpy shit, Uruha is weirdly cheery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-31 09:04:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8572435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_duck_bride/pseuds/the_duck_bride
Summary: "Kai; highly developed skill set in all areas and particularly in strategy. He’s one of our absolute best and he’ll be a useful asset to this squad as his plans rarely fail."Uruha; also another incredibly skilled assassin and, most importantly, a weapons specialist. I think you’ll find him most useful.“Kai and Uruha, you two may have heard of Ruki. He’s our best weapon. His strongest point is stealth and surprise attacks, but overall he tops everyone across the board. I believe this team will have no problem with the rebel infestation in Tokyo. You leave tonight."





	1. Chapter 1

The night was bathed in total silence and the deep navy sky lacked the pale glow of the moon; the large mass having disappeared, hidden behind the ever cloudy sky. There had been no moon for a long time, ever since the End War left a huge covering of pollution and dust cloud over most of the world. Even the sun was a rare sight to see; but the world had been left in such a situation for just over two hundred years which meant humans had learned to adapt.  
   
None of the world’s population had ever seen the moon and the lacking light in the sky made it all the easier for the one most deadly force known to move about. They only took action during the night hours, using the pitch black abyss of darkness to move silently and without causing any disruption. They were lethal, the slowly rebuilding government’s biggest asset. Trained in facilities from the time they hit seven years old they know nothing but conflict and their orders. None of them have any interest in pursuing a life outside of what they know for they have no idea what real life is like; this lack of information and their willingness to follow orders makes them the government’s most powerful weapon.  
   
Assassins.  
   
Around a hundred years after the End War annihilated most of the cities in the world, groups of survivors in each country gathered and formed the world’s current government. Slowly they began making decisions to aid in the recovery of mankind; they created jobs for people, paying them in food and supplies, they began clearing out cities that had been completely torn apart by bombs and doing their best to rebuild them with what materials they had, they restored some kind of order and put laws in place. This didn’t mean that life was perfect; the system was still rough and they guessed it would take a long while before it was anything like the government that had been in place before.  
  
However, a problem arose and that problem went by the name of Rebels. Rebels were groups of survivors who opposed the government and insisted on making their own laws and their own decisions. They broke away and formed their own little societies. Usually the government didn’t mind them, but they found they needed to get involved when the Rebel groups began causing problems. Turf wars were a common problem amongst Rebels; the groups generally didn’t get along at all and whenever they met it would most likely result in violence and an immense amount of casualties. Another problem the government faced with Rebels was their refusal to give up land. If a population grew too large the government needed to shift them to a large space or spread them out more, which mean reclaiming land that was possibly under the control of a few Rebel groups.  
   
This is when assassins first came into use. The government had been keeping them under lock and key, but when Rebel groups began lashing back the assassins were sent to eliminate them. Word quickly spread of the death that came in the night and the general population began to fear the assassins even though it was unheard of for an assassin to kill an innocent.  
   
And so this was how the world remained for the next hundred years. Rebels did as rebels do and fought against the government and the government sent assassins to get rid of them.  
   
                                                                           ***   
  
A lone figure strode through the middle of the compound’s courtyard, his heavy black trench coat open but the hood pulled up, shielding his face from the view of others. He was small in stature with a height of only five foot two inches and a lean build, but he was so incredibly light on his feet; he could walk over a bed of twigs and not snap a single one. Ruki was the facility’s deadliest and most skilled assassin and only a few came close to being at his level. But being the best of the best wasn’t all roses. Often he was alienated by those around him, finding that because he was so highly regarded by those in charge he was treated as a know-it-all or suck up.  
   
That and he was different from everyone else in the sense that he didn’t look normal. No one really knew where he had come from, not even Ruki himself. He’d been in the facility for as long as he could remember and from what he’d been told by Kyo, the man running the show, he’d been found as a baby and brought in. Ruki had been cast out because of the way he looked; naturally, his hair was almost the colour of snow, like it’d been bleached over and over again, and his irises were pure white with a ring of black around the outside; hence the reason why he almost always had his hood up. It was just better for him and everyone if no one saw his face, and as a result of this not many people knew what he really looked like. He liked to stick to the confines of his quarters and Kyo, being the generous man he was on occasion, had even granted him his own training facility fully equipped with any weaponry and gear he may need. Ruki guessed that Kyo knew why he had an aversion to people; he wasn’t like them.  
  
Even the doctors in the facility had no idea what’d caused these abnormalities but they suspected it had something to do with exposure to radiation left over after the war. It was still relatively strong in some places despite the war being over for so long, and it was their best guess that Ruki’s body had reacted to it in an abstract way. Instead of causing radiation sickness it merely slightly mutated him. But that was as much of an explanation as they could fathom. Ruki just basically accepted that he would live his life not knowing what happened to him before he came to the facility or how he ended up the freak he was; he refused to let anything like that faze him.  
   
Entering the main building on the facility, a relatively well repaired tower, Ruki took the elevator up to Kyo’s office where the secretary outside the entrance buzzed in and informed Kyo that Ruki had arrived. It wasn’t overly common to find places with electricity but the facility was one of the lucky places that’d been fully restored in that sense; they would still occasionally have a blackout but it was better than living in total darkness like most of the population did.  
   
Without much regard for the woman behind the desk, who shot him an odd look which he’d seen far too often for his liking, Ruki walked through the wooden doors and into his boss’s office where there stood two other men who he recognized instantly as two of the best assassins in the facility; two who were almost equal to Ruki himself and it was Ruki’s best guess that what Kyo had pulled him out of a mission for was serious. One of the men, with long thin dread locks pulled into a high ponytail, stood with his hands folded behind his back and a small scowl on his face which indicated he meant business. Ruki had never really spoken to him, but he’d seen him in action; he was good. The other man, the taller of the three with slightly dirty blond hair, was a little more relaxed but still ready to be called to attention. Ruki knew him relatively well, as well as Ruki could know anyone anyway; he was a nice enough guy, a little on the aloof and quirky side.  But he knew for a fact that neither man had seen his face, only his skill in combat.  
   
Finally stopping in between the two men Ruki focused his attention on the man behind the large recently restored mahogany desk who stood to address him, “Good morning, Ruki.” The white haired man didn’t respond, only gave a small nod, his deep hood shifting a little. “There’s no need to wear your hood here, you’ll be working closely with these two for quite some time I’m guessing, so they’ll need to grow used to your differences.” Kyo was blunt to say the least, but he never treated Ruki like a freak, which he appreciated.  
   
Sighing, Ruki lifted his pale hands, a little apprehensively, to push back the black material of his hood and reveal his white shoulder length hair. He glanced to his left and then to his right, white eyes gauging the reactions of the men around him; they seemed mildly surprised, but neither of them seemed particularly interested which put him at ease a little. Not that they would’ve know he was on edge to begin with; Ruki was incredibly skilled at hiding his emotions, it was a skill that every assassin had been educated in.  
   
Turning back to the man behind the desk, his boss so to speak, Ruki gave him his undivided attention as he awaited his new assignment. Kyo cleared his throat, even though it wasn’t really necessary seeing as all three of the assassins in the room were already paying full attention to him. “Welcome gentlemen,” Kyo spoke in his commanding voice. “I’ll cut straight to the chase, there’s no need to screw around… You’re heading to Tokyo. Together.” Out of his peripheral vision Ruki saw the two men beside him glance at each other, but he didn’t bother. He’d been expecting this eventually. “As you know, the population here in Osaka has been growing steadily which means we need to expand. But instead of just rebuilding abandoned towns along the way we want to reclaim Tokyo.”  
   
“But sir,” the blond man spoke up in his smooth voice. “Tokyo is infested with rebel tribes and-”  
   
“I know that,” Kyo cut him off sharply. The older man was not fond of being interrupted and he sent the assassin a warning glare. “That is why I’ve called in you three. You’re the best we’ve got. You’re being sent in to remedy the situation in Tokyo, clear out the rebels so we can move in and begin the repair process. You may not know each other very well, so we’ll get the introductions over and done with.” Kyo shifted his gaze to the man on Ruki’s left, not looking overly excited about having to introduce everyone but knew it was necessary.  
  
"Kai; highly developed skill set in all areas and particularly in strategy. He’s one of our absolute best and he’ll be a useful asset to this squad as his plans rarely fail.” Ruki glanced to his left and saw Kai give a faint nod, clearly he wasn’t overly energetic.  
  
“Uruha,” Kyo’s attention moved onto Ruki’s right where the blond man gave a salute that almost looked sarcastic. This made Ruki’s brow rise ever so slightly, however Kyo seemed to ignore the gesture and continued on with his introduction, “Also another incredibly skilled assassin and, most importantly, a weapons specialist. I think you’ll find him most useful.”  
  
Next Kyo looked directly at Ruki and the white haired man felt both Kai’s and Uruha’s eyes on him; the attention made him feel a little squeamish. He wasn’t used to people looking at him and scrutinizing him so intently; thus the reason why he kept his hood up all the time. He was also scarcely seen wandering the facility, he wasn’t really one for mingling and his lack of appearances except for work made him kind of like an urban legend among assassins. “Kai and Uruha, you two may have heard of Ruki. He’s our best weapon. His strongest point is stealth and surprise attacks, but overall he tops everyone across the board. I believe this team will have no problem with the rebel infestation in Tokyo. You leave tonight,” Kyo concluded with a nod, clearly indicating that they’d been dismissed.  
   
Exiting Kyo’s office together, Kai, Uruha and Ruki shuffled into the elevator which clattered to life and began its decent to the third floor of the building where they would pick up their uniforms, weapons, supplies and everything else they needed. A sigh broke the silence in the elevator as Uruha’s mildly lackadaisical voice left his mouth in a rush of air, “Well, this should be interesting, am I right?” When neither of the other two assassins made an attempt to answer the dirty blond merely rolled his eyes and muttered about “how much fun this assignment was going to be”.  
   
                                                                          ***   
   
By the time evening fell all three assassins had spent their time wisely; preparing for their long journey to Tokyo. Kyo had organised for a car to take them; working cars were extremely hard to find, but the facility had one or two of them. Obviously they couldn’t be taken all the way into the city because that would alert rebel tribes, but the driver had been instructed to drop them just outside the city boarders in a spot where there were no rebel tribes. That was also where they would set up their base in order to not raise any suspicion; it would mean they’d need to travel for about an hour on foot to get into Tokyo, but they were willing to make that sacrifice in order to not be caught.  
   
None of them spoke during the six hour car ride. Uruha had attempted to start up some kind of friendly conversation but it had quickly died out as neither Kai nor Ruki were incredibly interested in chit chat; they were working and working didn’t mean making friends. Ruki made a fairly good guess that Kai was already formulating some kind of plan in his head; they were all the same in the sense that they wanted to get in and do their assigned task as quickly and efficiently as possible.  
  
They were not there for a holiday; they were there to eradicate the rebel tribes and free up Tokyo for rebuilding.  However, Ruki guessed they would be there for at least a few months. Tokyo was a large city with so many hiding places and potential bases to harbour rebel tribes. It’d be a difficult task, but nothing he couldn’t handle he was sure, and with the help of two of the best assassins that facility had he saw no problems lying ahead.  
   
As they passed through the night Ruki gazed out at the landscape; they’d passed through several small towns, all of which were completely destroyed and uninhabitable as a result of the war. None of it was a shock to the white haired man, he’d seen it all a billion times over and his environment never made a difference to him as long as he could perform his task quickly and efficiently. That’s what it was all about; doing his job. Death and killing was the only thing he’d ever known and the lack of proper social interaction left his people skills a little stunted, not that it mattered really. No one was interested in talking to him and he wasn’t interested in talking to anyone. It was simple.  
   
Finally, at around one in the morning, they reached their destination and quietly exited the car, gathering the supplies and weapons they’d need for the next few months. With a quick thank you to the driver from Uruha, the car was disappearing into the night, leaving the three assassins alone on the outskirts of a rebel infested metropolis. They didn’t waste time getting into a building, an old apartment building that was still in relatively good condition meaning it hadn’t toppled over, and making it something close to a home; rolling out a few bed mats and positioning maps on a table that looked as if it were on the verge of rotting into a pile of dust at any moment. The apartment wasn’t big which meant they all needed to sleep in the living area while Uruha took the small bedroom to use as his weapon storage compartment. Ruki situated his mat as far away from the other two as possible, which wasn’t very far really, and set his duffle bag full of weapons and clothes against the wall. Uruha had offered to take his weapons but Ruki had declined, stating that he had his own personalized weapons from his training room to bring.  
   
“We need to go out and scout the area,” Kai stated from his kneeling position by the low table where he’d spread out numerous maps of the area and the larger surrounding city. Uruha exited his weapons room and sat down across from the strategist, Ruki followed suit but instead of sitting down he merely stood off to the side where he was close enough to see the maps but not too close to the others. He still wasn’t comfortable around them which was why, as soon as they were out of Kyo’s office, he’d pulled his hood back up.  
   
“I agree,” Uruha stated in a serious voice, not at all sounding like the aloof man from Kyo’s office. Ruki knew the blond had switched into his work mode, which he was thankful for as he didn’t much know how to handle someone with a sense of humour. Kai he could deal with because he was serious and always on the job, but Uruha was different. His quirkiness baffled Ruki which made him even more hesitant to interact with him. “How do you suggest we go about it?”  
   
Ruki watched as Kai studied the maps for a brief moment before glancing up at his companions. “I say we work by the train map, it seems to be the most efficient way to go since there are lines and exits everywhere. I studied a few reports of Tokyo before we left and it seems as if most of the train tunnels are still intact; granted, there are a few that have collapsed, but nothing that can’t be avoided. Now, it’s my guess that there’ll be at least a few rebel tribes in the subways; it seems like the perfect spot, but they shouldn’t be too much of a problem because we only need the train tunnels as a means of getting from one place to another unseen.

  
Kai pointed around a few different spots on the map, seemingly subconsciously as he continued,     “We’ll surface at every station to scout the surroundings and then drop back down below to move on to the next area.” Kai paused and pulled out a map with the names of each station on it and the different train lines all colour coded in order to enable efficient travel. Ruki had read that when the trains actually functioned, before the war, the trains themselves had a coloured stripe on the side to indicate which line was which.  
  
“Uruha, you can take Ikebukuro and the surrounding areas,” the brunet glanced up to see the blond nod and then he turned to Ruki, “You can take the Shinjuku and Shibuya area.” Ruki gave a short nod. “And I’ll take the inner city Tokyo and Ueno area.” Kai placed the maps aside and stood up, along with Uruha to begin readying for their departure. “Be back before the sun rises, we don’t want to allow easy detection, not that I think we’d be found but we need to take every precaution; if Kyo is right, Tokyo is crawling with rebels,” Kai instructed as he pulled on his coat and flipped his hood up, an accessory characteristic of an assassin outfit used to hide their face.  
  
Uruha disappeared into his weapon room and emerged a moment later with two large katana strapped to his body, one across his back and the other fastened to his hip; strapped to his thigh was a small handgun and Ruki guessed it was only there if he absolutely needed it. Guns were easy to find, but ammo was precious; hence guns were scarcely used unless there was almost no other option. Ruki knew the weapons specialist had more instruments strapped to various places on his body; he’d be a fool if he assumed that the only weapons Uruha carried were the visible ones.  
   
Ruki left them to ready himself. Out of his bag he brought his own katana, which was a little longer than the average sword of its kind, wrist cuffs which he fastened on at lightning speed, testing them a few times to make sure his hidden blades exited and retracted without any complications. Standing up he slipped his must-have throwing knives into their slots after checking that they were all sharpened. Ruki didn’t need an exceptional amount of weaponry, unlike Uruha. He was skilled in physical combat and could probably take down at least twenty men without even needing to draw his blade. Besides, he didn’t imagine they would need an abundant amount of weapons that night as they would most likely be avoiding combat at all costs and, with all of them having such a high skill set, it would be incredibly unlikely that they’d be detected.  
   
“Alright,” Kai announced as he finished tying up his boot and stood up, knee length leather coat brushing the back of his legs. “Let’s move out.” Without waiting for a reply he made his way towards the door, Ruki and Uruha following closely behind him. Once they were outside Kai turned to them, his face shadowed by his hood, as was Ruki and Uruha’s, and all hint of long dreadlocks gone; the only part of his face that was visible was his mouth which was pressed into tense line, “Make sure you’re back before sunrise. If you’re not…” He shrugged dismissively, “Then I guess I’ll assume you’re dead.” Without another word he darted off into the darkness, the glint of a metal grappling hook flinging up and hoisting the assassin up the side of a nearby building.  
   
“You heard the man.” Ruki felt a light slap against his shoulder, glancing down to find a hand covered by fingerless leather gloves and black painted nails which seemed to be kept in perfect condition despite their occupation, and looked over at the blond whose face was also hidden by a dark hood. “Don’t get killed,” he commented nonchalantly before he dashed off in a similar direction to Kai, totally swallowed up by the darkness between two buildings.  
   
Ruki sighed before he himself departed


	2. Chapter 2

Heading down a staircase just near the apartment building they’d set up residence in, Ruki found himself in the dark, damp underground of the Tokyo subway system. The train tracks below were silent and gloomy, darkness looming overhead and threatening to totally pull the white haired man under and suffocate him. Luckily for him he was trained to operate in complete darkness hence he could see perfectly fine in the dense black shadows.

 

Water dripped somewhere in the distance, creating an ominous echo in the emptiness, as Ruki moved quickly and soundlessly through the train tunnels. As he drew closer to the city he began heading above ground, scouting out the surrounding areas but not finding much else besides a few mangled bodies which he assumed had been rebels that’d strayed too far from their respective tribes. Those insects were rather territorial and often didn’t take kindly to strangers wandering onto their turf; hence one or more of the intruders tended to end up with spilled guts or a slit throat.

 

As the assassin ventured further and further into the dense destruction of the city he wondered where this rebel “infestation” could possibly be. He had spotted a few small rebel groups, but each only had around four or five people; nothing he couldn’t take care of in less than two minutes depending on how skilled the rebels were in combat. But no matter how good they were, Ruki knew he could beat them. The morning hours passed slowly and Ruki wondered if he’d even find anything worth fighting, not that he would be engaging in substantial combat that day, but he knew that’s what it would eventually come to. He’d been sent to do a job after all, which would inevitably end in mountains of bloodshed.

 

Once he was on the surface, Ruki scaled a decaying building and situated himself on its roof, which wasn’t as tall as the rest of the Tokyo skyline but the fall would definitely kill someone. The assassin wondered whether his companions had had more luck than him; he didn’t imagine so. From his crouched position on the edge of the crumbling building, Ruki could see a decent portion of what he’d read used to be Harajuku. He assumed that what he saw resembled nothing of what it had once been; shopping streets and bustling crowds of teenagers as far as old records had told him.

 

His hawk-like eyes scanned the surrounding area, surveying the destroyed and semi-destroyed buildings for any sign of life. After watching and waiting for almost twenty minutes Ruki began his decent, seeming to skitter down the side of the building by grappling onto jutting poles and ridges of old cement before coming to a halt when he was only a few meters off the ground. The white haired man had paused after his impeccably trained ears detected the distinct sound of human footfall. He stopped and slipped inside one of the shattered windows of the old building, disappearing into the darkness and waiting to make sure his ears hadn’t deceived him.

 

Which they never did.

 

Ruki had almost thought he’d imagined the sound until he heard a voice echo from around the corner of a nearby building and only moments later two figures emerged into the wide, rubble filled street. One was a woman, probably in her thirties with choppy pixie cut black hair and a stern face. She wore torn off shorts and a holey sleeved shirt with a vest over the top; resting on her small shoulder she had a hatchet which was clearly a means of defence. The other figure was a man, possibly in his mid-twenties, his shaggy black hair reaching just below his shoulders and his outfit consisting of leather pants and a long sleeve cardigan which was left open to reveal a lean, pale torso and well defined muscles. Ruki could just see a hint of his ribs moving underneath his skin, indicating that he had a hard time feeding himself properly which probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise, decent food could be an incredibly difficult thing to come across. He carried no weapon that Ruki could see, but he would not be surprised if the man had a knife or two stashed away. Both of them were clearly rebels with the way that their clothes looked as if they’d been constructed out of rags and their dirty, ragged appearance. They were of no threat to Ruki, just like the others he’d found, but their conversation is what caught the assassin’s attention.

 

“Mika, we should get back…” The man warned in a smooth yet slightly nasal voice- or maybe not nasal, but it had a definite swang to it- as he glanced around, but instead of looking nervous he sounded rather nonchalant. “You know boss-man doesn’t like us being out at night.”

 

“Shut up,” the woman snapped harshly, her voice quite rough and gravelly for a woman. “You don’t think I already know that?”

 

“Then why did you drag me all the way out here? We’re not meant to be this far from the camp, especially when there’s only two of us,” the raven haired man glanced around as if to check for anyone listening. Ruki pressed back further into the shadows as the duo drew closer and their conversation grew louder. He watched out the open square where he was sure glass had once been and studied their faces as they drew closer. Just as he’d expected, the woman’s face looked stern and worn and she may have even been a little older than he’d first expected. The other rebel, the man, was quite attractive, Ruki guessed. If he were interested in making contact with other people he supposed that the man would be considered good-looking among the general populous. He had soft features, but clearly still held an air of masculinity, with dark eyes and plump lips. The white haired man spotted a jagged scar, estimating it to be around seven centimetres long, which marred his jaw; beginning at the base of his right eye on the outside corner and curving down his cheek a little to end just short of the bottom of his chin.

 

“Yuu, since when are you one to care about rules?” The woman, Mika, questioned in a tight voice. “And to answer your question, I needed to get outta that place. That foreigner was starting to drive me crazy and I knew I couldn’t come out alone.”

 

“So you dragged _me_ along…” The man, Yuu, scoffed quietly and shook his head. For some reason, Ruki imagined that he’d also rolled his eyes. “… Of all people…”

 

“Well, I knew you would be the only one who _wouldn’t_ question me until we were gone. _And_ you’d be the only one willing to leave so early in the morning,” Mika explained herself a little begrudgingly. “Besides-” Suddenly, Yuu stopped right underneath the window Ruki was hiding in, making the assassin hold his breath. Yuu held his arm out in front of Mika, causing her to stop and gaze up at him questioningly. “… Yuu, what is it?” She gazed around nervously, no longer sounding as in control of her emotions as she had mere seconds ago.

 

“We’re not alone…” Yuu stated in a low voice as he surveyed the area, clearly looking for any sign of life just as Ruki had done before. “I can feel someone else here.”

 

Ruki was amazed. How could a simple rebel know that there was another presence in their vicinity? Surely that couldn’t be right… Surely he couldn’t know that an assassin, someone trained to be silent and undetectable, was in the area. Ruki’s heart began to hammer in his chest. He’d never screwed up in his life, it would have been unforgivable if he’d given away that there were assassins in the city when the rebels weren’t meant to have a clue.

 

“Look,” Yuu murmured, pointing to a relatively intact building about fifty metres from where they were situated just as a few voices drifted their way as well as heavy footfall. “We’ve got company.”

 

“Another tribe?” Mika whispered back.

 

“I’d say so,” Yuu nodded his head once. “Reckon we can sneak off before they see us? We must’ve come onto their turf without realizing it; we _are_ a fair way from the camp.”

 

Ruki saw Mika nod her head as he felt his own heart rate go down. They hadn’t known he was there, thank god. “Yeah,” Mika agreed. “Let’s go; we don’t need to cause any unnecessary trouble. Let’s just get back before anyone notices we’re gone.”

 

Yuu nodded in agreement and they both turned on their heels, moving quickly and silently back the way they’d come. Ruki didn’t waste one second; he was on their trail in mere moments, leaping from building to building and making sure he stayed well hidden in the shadows. The two rebels were incredibly agile, ducking and weaving around and through fallen debris, even clambering up and over a six foot concrete wall without slowing down. Ruki guessed they weren’t the type of rebel tribe who moved around from place to place because they obviously knew their surroundings exceptionally well.  

 

They ran for a solid fifteen minutes before they finally slowed to a walk. Ruki slunk up the side of a building and perched himself on a jutting ledge, still making sure that he was covered by the looming shadows, and watched as the pair dropped down into a wide hole in the ground. Ruki could distinctly hear more voices coming from underground and when he looked up he noticed a series of large, square holes in the ground which had collapsed during the war to reveal and underground network of tunnels. It must have been the underground walkways that were used to navigate around a large train station. When he gazed around he noticed numerous rebels prowling the perimeter; sentries he supposed.

 

They were armed with hatchets and machetes, a few even had large guns but they were most likely for show, to chase off any intruding rebels. When he looked into the holes he saw that there was light coming from underground which meant they were burning a ton of candles or they’d somehow managed to fix the electricity. Clearly they were a large tribe, possibly the “infestation” they’d been warned about before leaving.

 

If there was one thing worse than a city with thousands of small tribes, it was a city with one incredibly large tribe; it would be _much_ harder to take them down. Ruki knew that the tribe would definitely pose a threat if repair teams from Osaka arrived and decided they wanted to reclaim the area. Ruki quickly surveyed the rest of the surroundings, making sure he knew exactly where he was before disappearing back into the shadows. He wasn’t keen on sticking around just in case he was somehow detected by one of the sentries.

 

When the white haired assassin arrived back at base the sun was just peaking over the horizon. Entering through the window he found that both Kai and Uruha had already beat him back and they’d both taken off their heavy gear in favour of plain black pants and long sleeve shirts. Kai was hunched over a map at his table, no doubt marking out his findings and Uruha was sitting on his bed mat sharpening a rather nasty looking collection of knives.

 

“You’re late,” Kai spoke disapprovingly, not even looking up from his map, and Ruki shot him an irritated look, not really appreciating being spoken to like a teenager who’d missed his curfew.

 

“Yeah, man,” Uruha agreed, not sounding disapproving at all, just like his regular weird self. “We were starting to think those rebel pests had gotten to you.”

 

Ruki glanced at him from underneath his hood. “Don’t be stupid,” he mumbled before retreating to his own bed where he took off his weaponry and placed them back inside his bag, not wanting them to get mixed up with any of Uruha’s eccentric tools.

 

“Well, now that you’re back,” Kai announced, sitting up and looking at Uruha before turning to Ruki. “We’ll share what we discovered.”

 

With a nod from each assassin, the three of them gathered around the table where Kai began pointing to different locations and narrating the discoveries he’d made. It turned out that there were a number of relatively small groups around the inner Tokyo and Ueno area. Ruki figured from what Kai had told them that it wouldn’t take too long to clear out that area. Next was Uruha. His information was much like Kai’s, numerous small groups scattered about Ikebukuro as well as one larger one which consisted of around thirty people and as he pointed to each position on the map Kai marked them in with a red pen.

 

“Ruki, what did you find?” Kai asked, finally turning to face the white haired assassin who’d still failed to remove his hood.

 

“A few little groups here and there,” he began, showing Kai which spots on the map they were located. When his finger came to rest on Harajuku he circled his index finger around a whole street, tapping the centre twice. Kai and Uruha shot him a questioning look to which he replied, “While I was scouting I came across two stray rebels, and after listening to their conversation I followed them. They lead me here,” he tapped the map once more to emphasize his point. “They’ve made a home out of the old subway tunnels. The top layer of the earth has collapsed so I could see underground. I expect they’ve cleared out most of the old rubble and it’s now a whole underground network. There are sentries positioned outside which indicates that they have a large number of people. A few hundred I’m guessing; maybe a little more, maybe a little less. But I think this is the main infestation we’re meant to be taking care of.”

 

Uruha stared in astonishment, clearly not trying to hide his emotions as a normal assassin would. Ruki could tell that Kai was a little shocked and he quickly marked the Harajuku street with a large red circle as well as an asterisk. “Alright,” Kai sat back surveying the map that now had a scattering of red X’s in various places and one large scrawly circle in the bottom left hand corner. “We need to hit the big one first. But…” he trailed off as he thought, putting his quick thinking strategist skills to work. “I think we can clear away a few of the small ones around the edges. If we start taking out all of the small groups before we arrive at the largest we run the risk of alerting them of our presence.”

 

“That makes sense,” Uruha nodded in agreement. “If they’re as large of a group as you say they are, Ruki, then they’ll have a decent amount of power, meaning that if they decide they want some new turf they’ve only got to travel a little to find the dead bodies. And we know how rebels love to wander…” Uruha trailed off. “So let’s worry about a few small groups earlier.”

 

“It’d be easy enough to make it look like other rebels as killed them as well. The fuckers kill each other for land all the time,” Kai nodded. “Alright, tomorrow evening we move to Ueno and eradicate a few of the little ones there. I also think we should scout the Harajuku tribe more; get some more information on them. I can probably take care of the Ueno groups by myself; I know that area and I know where the tribes are. Ruki, you can take Uruha to the Harajuku tribe. Three people will be too much, but we can gather more information faster if there are two of you.”

 

Ruki nodded, a little begrudgingly. He much preferred to work alone but he knew that Kai, as the master strategist he was, had a valid point. There would be no use in all three of them going to take out such small groups of rebels and with him and Uruha working together to scout the area around the Harajuku tribe they could both watch each other’s back and gather more intel without having to worry about where two other people were at all times.

 

With the plan sorted out, the three assassins retreated to bed just as the rays of sunlight began shifting through the open window. Ruki slept easily that night; as easily as he could really sleep anyway. He was an assassin, always on guard, always waiting for an attack. He was acutely aware of his surroundings. But, after such a long, tedious day, he was _almost_ dead to the world.


	3. Chapter 3

Late afternoon sunlight, which was mainly blocked out by the ever-present clouds that covered Japan, was beginning to dwindle as Ruki, Uruha and Kai silently packed up their belongings and readied themselves to go their separate ways. Ruki was strapping on his hidden blades, silently cursing his restlessness and the lack of sleep he’d gotten. Even though he had been able to get to sleep easily didn’t mean he was able to stay asleep for very long.  
  
Their base there in Tokyo was far different from the sleeping arrangements he was used to. Although it wasn’t so much the fact that he had to sleep on the floor in an old abandoned building, but more so the fact that he had to share a room with two other people; he felt like he had to sleep with one eye open in a very literal sense. Ruki knew he was probably being foolish in that thought seeing as they were all assassins there to accomplish the same ultimate goal, but his instincts insisted that he only stay half asleep all night.   
  
Kai stood up from his maps, adjusting a few buckles and straps on his pants before pulling up his hood. He’d been pouring over the pages on the table for a good hour and a bit, probably trying to figure out where to best position himself in order to fulfil his job quickly and efficiently. Ruki knew Kai would probably be able to finish the job quicker than him or Uruha purely because of his superb planning skills. Kai would know exactly where he had to be at exactly what time and Ruki supposed that was why he was one of Japan’s best assassins.   
  
A noise to his left made Ruki shift his gaze, watching as Uruha emerged from his weapons room with two pistols strapped to his belt and an excessively large gun that Ruki couldn’t name secured diagonally across his back. The white haired man had only spent a brief amount of time studying weaponry, the reason for this being that once he found the weapon that worked best for him, which was his beloved katana, he’d had no desire to continue his weapon training. He supposed that would bring him some kind of disadvantage if he were to ever face someone who had an extensive knowledge of weapons like Uruha did, but he doubted that would ever happen; it wasn’t often that people outside of his compound had access to anything more advanced than a makeshift sword, knife or axe. But Ruki guessed he had to admire Uruha’s passion to some extent, even if he was a little on the strange side Uruha proved useful.   
  
“Alright,” Kai suddenly spoke up just as Uruha finished adjusting the straps which fastened the oversized gun to his back. The strategist shot him a look as though to ask if a gun of that proportion was really necessary for a scouting mission, but clearly he chose to withhold his comment. “Same as yesterday; be back before sunrise.” Ruki wasn’t looking, continuing to fiddle with his wrist cuffs, but he could tell Kai had directed that particular comment at him. “I’ll take my leave now. I suggest you work out some kind of strategy before you head out.” Without another word Kai vanished out the window, not to be seen again until the early hours of the morning.   
  
Ruki heard Uruha sigh in an exasperated manner, scuffing his boot against the dust floor, “Isn’t that his job? Coming up with plans and strategies and all that?”   
  
“It is,” Ruki confirmed, standing up and turning to face the blond assassin who was fiddling with one of his pistols as the white haired man regarded him with a rather bland expression from underneath his hood. “But I guess he thought we’d be able to handle planning something as simple as a scouting mission. He’s the strategist, but he’s not here to baby us. We’re still assassins,” Ruki stated firmly.   
  
If he were to be completely honest he’d much rather just take care of everything by himself without Kai or Uruha’s help. But he knew Kyo had sent all three of them for a reason, he’d obviously known about the Harajuku tribe prior to their departure which irked Ruki slightly because he wished their boss had just told them in advance so they knew what they were dealing with. But there was no point in hanging on to such an issue; it’d only distract the white haired assassin from their job.   
  
“I think it’s pretty straightforward,” Uruha commented absently, obviously figuring that he wouldn’t get much of a reaction from his fellow assassin. “I’ll just follow you and then when we get there we can take different posts and keep an eye on the hostiles.”   
  
Ruki resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Usually it wasn’t so simple but he got the feeling that Uruha wasn’t really one for planning, which would explain exactly why he was a weapon’s specialist and not a strategist. Finally venturing away from his corner, Ruki knelt by the maps Kai had spread across the table, pulling the one that was a close up of the Shibuya area to the top of the pile. He took Kai’s red pen and drew a circle around the train station he’d come out of. “This is where I came from,” he began, glancing out the corner of his eye as Uruha shifted closer. “And I followed the two rebels I found back to this street,” Ruki moved the pen over the paper, drawing dashes that symbolized the path he’d taken when he followed the two hostiles. Stopping and drawing an X at the beginning of the street he’d been lead to, Ruki studied the map carefully.   
  
“This is where I stopped. This whole section of road, as far as I can tell has collapsed.” A long red oval was scribbled over the most of the length of the street. “And I could see into the underground network they’ve got. I didn’t get a look at how large the area they cover is, but I suggest that be our main focus tonight. We need to figure out how much ground they cover and then from that we can estimate how many there are. It would be a good idea to also pay attention to how their sentries work. I noticed as well,” Ruki continued, capping the red pen and putting it back on the table. “That the sentries have guns.”   
  
That comment perked Uruha’s attention as the white haired assassin continued his explanation. “I don’t know what kind of guns they were, which is where you’ll come in handy. I don’t know if they work or not either; they may just be used for show seeing as the other two rebels only had smaller makeshift weapons. But we should be careful anyway.” Ruki glanced up at Uruha and regarded him closely, “You will be able to tell what type of guns they’re carrying, won’t you?”   
  
The dirty blond gave him a disbelieving stare, as if he had gone completely crazy. “I’m a weapon’s specialist,” he stated matter-of-factly. “I think I’d be out of the job if I couldn’t tell what type of gun I’m looking at.”   
  
Ruki resisted the urge, once again, to roll his eyes at the elder assassin as he stood up. “We should get moving then. We don’t have any time to waste.” Without waiting for Uruha’s reply he made sure his hood was securely pulled over his head before climbing out the window and dropping soundlessly to the ground below. Highly trained ears picked up the sound of a second pair of boots hitting the cracked pavement before they both disappeared into the abandoned subway system.   
  
                                                                           *          *          *  
  
Night had well and truly fallen by the time Ruki and Uruha emerged onto the deserted Tokyo streets, the pale moonlight that bathed the crumbling buildings making some of them look like awful terrifying beasts looming over the desolate city. The dull shine from the moon also served as their only light. Silence of the night was the only sound that followed them as their boots glided soundlessly through the city.   
  
Ruki didn’t see any trace of the two rebels that’d been lingering the night before, but he had a photographic memory and knew which way they’d travelled and how far away the rebel tribe was. Surprisingly, Uruha didn’t let out a peep the entire time they travelled and Ruki was grateful for that; he may have been a bit of chatter mouth outside of the job, but Uruha knew when to keep his head down and work.   
  
As they neared the tribe, Ruki held his hand up as a signal for Uruha to slow down; they’d been jogging for almost an hour straight. Pointing to the building he’d climbed into the night before Ruki headed over, one gloved hand after another grappling onto the jutting bits of concrete and cracks in the cement as he easily climbed up into one of the lower floors. The windows had long ago been knocked out and all that stood between the street below and where the two assassins sat were a few large cement pillars. Ruki lowered himself below the window sill and waited for Uruha to crouch beside him.   
  
“Holy shit,” Uruha said lowly as he gazed out at the long street, practically bustling with life. “You weren’t kidding when you said they were a large tribe. There must be hundreds down there.” Ruki could see that Uruha had already spotted the sentries. There were four up their end of the street, and the young assassin didn’t doubt that there were more in other areas around their camp.   
  
Ruki hummed quietly, eyes scanning over the area from below his hood. It all looked pretty much just as it had the night before. People moved about below the surface of the street, sentries shifted back and forth in their positions, life seemed to buzz around this particular strip of street. Ruki wasn’t mistaken in hearing laughter as well. Actual laughter. He found himself wondering if their life was more simple than other rebels; safety in numbers and all that. But then he remembered that that sentiment didn’t matter because very shortly all of these rebels would be dead.   
  
“They’re for show.” Uruha’s voice derailed Ruki’s train of thought and the white haired assassin frowned slightly as he glanced over at Uruha. Why did the weapon specialist’s brain have to be so scattered and random? Ruki wondered. It made the man very hard to understand sometimes. “The guns,” Uruha clarified, looking over to meet Ruki’s gaze. “Not even I can get ammo for those things, they’d have to be pretty much ancient,” he said, turning back to look at the sentries. Though Ruki could see the side of his face, or what was visible of it from under the blond’s hood, and Uruha looked like he was about to start drooling. “I’d love to get a look at those things up close…”  
  
“Uruha,” Ruki grunted, attempting to snap their eccentric teammate out of his lusty trance. They really didn’t have time for Uruha to go all gaga over a damn gun or two. Ruki knew that was his “thing”, but he could look at those guns all he liked when this tribe was fully taken care of. Until that time came, Ruki would really like to minimize distractions. Unfortunately… it seemed as though Uruha was the kind to become very easily distracted…  
  
“Uh, right,” Uruha shook his head a little as if needing to physically shake himself from his trance. He seemed to refocus himself and he frowned as he looked down at the sentries. “I’d say they work on some kind of… shift system. Or they move and cross over every now and then which could leave a nice gap for us to get in at some point in time. We’ll have to do a little more observation, but I’m fairly sure their system won’t be that good. They’re just dumb rats, after all,” the blond man shrugged in that rather nonchalant way that he does. “They’re primitive.”   
  
That was a statement Ruki couldn’t agree more on, though he didn’t verbalise it. Rebels were indeed primitive and usually unintelligent. They didn’t have the same resources that citizens back in Osaka had; they didn’t have the remaining knowledge left behind by civilization after the End War, the books, the technology that was still being decoded. All the rebels had and all the rebels knew was their tribes, their turf and fighting one another. Ruki knew they weren’t very advanced, and that left them to fall under the category of… well, primitive.   
  
“I’m going to get a better vantage point,” Ruki announced to Uruha after a few quiet moments. “Scope around a little and see what you notice about their sentries, gather as much information as possible. We’ll meet back here in a few hours.” Ruki only heard Uruha’s quiet ‘Aye, aye sir,’ before he shifted his position and moved further inside the building they were situated in.   
  
The white haired man wandered through the building, keeping his footsteps light and his senses alert. There could be rebels somewhere in the building, in fact it was very likely considering how close their tribe was. Ruki was lucky enough though not to encounter any as he moved higher through the hundred year old structure. He exited through a window on one of the upper floors, using a jutting piece of iron as a bridge between this building and the one beside it. The entire time Ruki moved, he kept a keen eye out for the sentries. Uruha was only mostly sure those guns didn’t work, which meant there was a slight chance that they did. It might be detrimental if he was somehow spotted and shot.   
  
Ruki moved swiftly from building to building for around fifteen minutes, bringing him to a different point inside the buildings around the large collapsed hole in the ground. Still, the sentries had barely moved and from this angle he could see that there were far more than he had initially thought and seen from his original vantage point. It seemed as though they had enough that they didn’t need to move at all; or at least move very little, which would cause some great inconvenience for the white haired assassin and his team. If the sentries didn’t move that meant they would have to count on the shift change in order to get inside with less of a chance of being seen.   
  
Security was tight; Ruki would give them that.  
  
The assassin’s hawk like eyes scanned over the terrain, taking in every little detail of the place and committing it to memory. He was around an hour and a half into his stake-out when he noticed one of the sentries moving; more so than he had before. The man, short and stocky with a shaved head, looked to his left before looking back and shifting off to the right. Ruki watched as another man came into view, exiting one of the buildings nearby. This one looked just as menacing as the other and he carried a gun very similar to the original sentry. Ruki could only hear mumbles from below, but the bald sentry slapped the other one of the shoulder before sauntering off, leaving the other man in his place.  
  
Ah, so they were smart enough to have figured out not to leave their post. Perhaps Ruki had underestimated the rebels. He narrowed his eyes as a few other sentries’ switched places with others. “Damn,” Ruki muttered. It would appear they really had no easy gaps in their defences.   
  
He scoped around a little more before his time was up and he ventured back to meet up with Uruha in their initial position. Ruki’s stake-out had been rather uneventful and he had gathered a lot less intel than he had wanted or hoped to. Ruki didn’t have to wait long before Uruha swung back through the window, landing a lot more nimbly than he should have been able to with so much weaponry strapped to his person. But the white haired man didn’t linger on that thought.   
  
“Anything interesting?” Uruha asked, straightening up.  
  
Ruki shook his head. “Let’s head back first. There’s no use in wasting our breath repeating our findings twice.” The assassin turned, leading the way back out of the building. In reality he was kind of just pissed off that he had gathered inadequate information. He was displeased with himself and hence was in an even less talkative mood than usual. He was supposed to be the best and yet he couldn’t even figure out an easy in to the rebel den. Of course they could always just crash in all guns blazing. But what if those guns did work? What if there were more sentries below ground they just hadn’t seen yet? They were clearly outnumbered and while the three of them stood a good chance it would be absolutely foolish to just dive in and possibly die, or at the very least alert the rebels to the fact that there were assassins in the city. 

 

                                                                            *          *          *

  
Ruki’s mind was plagued with irritation and ‘what ifs’ the entire way back to their base and once they returned he retreated to a corner in order to brood a little more. The white haired man sensed that Uruha knew he was in a foul mood as well, since the usually chatty weapon’s specialist hadn’t said a word since leaving the rebel den. If he would have said something Ruki was fairly sure Uruha would no longer have his tongue and it would appear Uruha knew that as well.  
  
Smart man.   
  
It was an hour or so before Kai climbed back through the window, a few spatters of blood on his cheeks and probably on his black clothes as well. But blending into darkness wasn’t the only reason the assassins wore black, it also masked the sight of blood. And blood was what Kai was probably covered in, Ruki was sure. The white haired assassin watch the strategist as he walked to his bag, instantly stripping out of his heavy jacket to hang it up over a loose beam overhead. He dropped his weapons, flexing his shoulders a few times before finally turning to his companions.   
  
“Y’know, you should clean your gear straight away,” Uruha pointed out, rather obnoxiously Ruki thought. “The blood will fuck shit up and it’s really hard to fix.” Kai merely gave Uruha a pointed look as he walked to the table that contained their maps and sat down. “Alright,” Uruha hummed, holding his hands up in surrender. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”  
  
“Let’s just get this done,” Kai stated. Now that, Ruki agreed with. Getting up, the smallest of the three sat himself down on a different side of the table, getting comfortable as Uruha came to join them. “Alright,” Kai started, picking up his marker and putting a big X through the Ueno area that had been marked down. “The small Ueno tribes are done. They didn’t really give my any kind of hassle at all, it was a clean execution,” he shrugged. “What did you two manage to find?”  
  
“Not much,” Uruha grunted and Ruki was eternally grateful that Uruha had said it before him. Clearly the blond didn’t have as much trouble admitting his failures as Ruki did and when Kai looked at him for confirmation Ruki could only nod his head. “Seriously,” Uruha continued, jabbing his finger at the giant red circle scribbled in the Harajuku portion of the map. “These fuckers are smarter than we gave them credit for. Their security is more advanced than I thought. They’ve got a shit ton of sentries and their posts are never left unattended. We’re going to have to do a little more thinking on how to infiltrate those fuckers.”  
  
Ruki watched Kai purse his lips as he looked down at the map, tapping his fingers against the table top. The white haired assassin noticed that Kai’s fingernails were all short and quite clearly gnawed at. Perhaps it was from stress… Ruki wondered if Kai had always done it. He imagined that Kai’s job was quite stressful, always being the one to make plans and if those plans fell through… it was most likely Kai’s fault. Ruki wouldn’t want that kind of weight on his shoulders.   
  
“Hm,” Kai hummed. “It seems like we may have to take a different approach.” That statement made Ruki frown and he shared a look with Uruha before they both focused back on Kai, who was still staring down at the map. “Maybe we don’t need to infiltrate as… us. Maybe we need to think of something else.”   
  
Ruki rolled his eyes. “Obviously you already have a plan, Kai.” That was Ruki’s version of ‘spit it out’. He didn’t like people who beat around the bush, who avoided the subject. “What is it?” He prompted, frowning slightly at the strategist from underneath his hood.  
  
“We need to think more like them,” Kai stated, causing Uruha’s jaw to drop and Ruki’s eyebrows to rise instead of furrow. “We need to infiltrate in a different way than we’re used to. We’re masters of blending in, right?” Uruha nodded. “Well, maybe we should blend into the crowd rather than the darkness,” Kai shrugged, as if it was absolutely nothing but Ruki’s mind was running a million miles an hour.   
  
“So… you’re saying that you want us to dress up and act like rebels to get into their camp and… what?” Asked Uruha, who thankfully seemed as skeptical as Ruki did. This was absolute madness in the white haired man’s mind! How were they supposed to blend in with those vermin? Ruki wasn’t like them at all; he couldn’t walk like them or talk like them. He’d have to dumb himself down immensely, nor would he be able to fight the way he had been trained his whole life! Ruki honestly was not sure he could do that.   
  
Kai rolled his eyes as if Uruha was the most thick skulled person Kai had ever met, and it wouldn’t really surprise Ruki if that ended up being true. “We act like them. We get inside, we scope out what we can’t see from the outside as assassins. We get to know them, how they work. It’s the whole learning the ways of the enemy so we can better figure out how to kill them,” Kai explained. “We might even be able to plant explosives at some point in time and just blow the fuckers to smithereens.”   
  
“Oh, I like that,” Uruha chirped, sitting up slightly as he grinned brightly.   
  
How fickle, Ruki thought with a roll of his eyes. Of course the idea of explosions would entice the weapon’s specialist. “And where do you suggest we get the clothes? Do you expect us to go and roll in some dirt or something so we look like them?” How on earth was this ever supposed to work? It wouldn’t, that was the fucking answer. Ruki was not ok with this plan.  
  
“They wear rags. It won’t be hard,” Kai stated, looking up from the map to Ruki. “Look, I know it sucks. But it’s our best and fastest option. Considering how big and well guarded the group is this will probably be the safest option as well.” Ruki only grunted; because he knew Kai was absolutely right. It didn’t seem like the safest option since they would be surrounded by the enemy at all times. But it was indeed the safest option because they would look like the rebels. They would be trusted… eventually. “So… We’ll do what assassins do best,” Kai decided, looking from Uruha to Ruki and then back to Ruki again.   
  
“We’ll blend in.”


	4. Chapter 4

Ruki was not ok with this plan. Really, really not ok with it. For more than one reason, which he had expressed to Kai in private after their strategist had seemed to make the decision for them without bothering to actually ask any opinions at all. He had barely left any room for Ruki to get in a breath of protest, which left the white haired assassin simmering in his irritation and disagreement. But it also left him time to mull  over his argument and attempt to come up with some kind of method to sway Kai away from the ridiculous idea he had decided on.  
  
The smallest and quietest of the assassins waited until Uruha had gone off to clean and polish his precious guns, even though he didn't use any of them. Ruki was sure the blond had some kind of unhealthy obsession with his weapons. But... he was the weapon's specialist and he wasn't causing anyone any harm by messing with his toys so Ruki could leave him to it. It was just... the small assassin found him quite strange. Anyway, once Uruha was messing about by himself Ruki pulled Kai aside, bringing the man into one of the other rooms inside the dilapidated house.  
  
"I don't think I need you to tell me why you wanted to talk," Kai said, hands coming to fold over his chest as he leaned against the door frame to the room and pinned Ruki with a rather exasperated look, which the white haired man very much did not appreciate. It felt to him like Kai was treating him like a petulant child rather than a skilled assassin. "Think about it, Ruki. This is the best chance we have."  
  
"Except it's not," Ruki stated, his own hands clenching into fists by his sides. He wasn’t normally one to get mad... but he was certainly kind of frustrated at the moment. Kai was being unbelievably stubborn and Uruha was not helping in the slightest. All it took to get that… idiot over onto Kai’s side was the slight chance that there may be explosions included! “We will be putting ourselves right in the thick of danger, in the middle of the enemy. We’re talented assassins, but that’s just suicide,” Ruki protested. “They will be suspicious of us at best and they’ll watch us like hawks, guaranteed. If they get even the slightest hint that we’re up to no good they’ll have us killed without even hesitating. And I know we’re good, Kai. But no one is good enough to hold off a hundred rebels, maybe more, at once.”  
  
By the look on Kai’s face though he clearly wasn’t convinced and it made Ruki want to slam the strategist’s thick skull against – or through – a wall in hopes that it may knock some kind of sense into that dull brain of his. Inside his head, Ruki was cursing Kai in a whole array of ways. But one would never guess it from his facial expression. Over the years Ruki had grown very, very good at keeping his face straight no matter what he was feeling. He could be in the most excruciating pain he had ever felt and he would not so much as twitch a muscle. It was just the way he had been raised and trained.  
  
Kai sighed, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck in clear irritation, which of course, served to irritate Ruki more. Kai didn’t seem to understand how stupid this idea was. “I get it, Ruki,” the dreaded man replied. “I can understand where you’re coming from, I can understand why you’re apprehensive to give it a try but I really see no other way to get this job done fast and clean the way Kyo wants it,” the strategist reasoned, apparently attempting not to appear so peeved. “We know how rebels work and we also know how to blend in. We just have to marry those two things together. But I get why you might be scared. It’ll be o-”  
  
“Scared?” Ruki almost snapped. Oh he had to try so damn hard not to slit Kai’s throat right then and there. Just the mere suggestion that Ruki might be scared made the white haired man’s blood boil. “I am not scared, Kai,” the assassin hissed through his teeth, unnaturally white eyes flashing. “I do not get scared.” Fear was not an emotion Ruki had had in a very long time. “I’m just trying to keep our arses alive so that we can complete this job.”  
  
Kai’s expression darkened as well, clearly not liking having been scolded by someone like Ruki. It was fairly obvious to Ruki that Kai didn’t like him very much. He wasn’t sure why; perhaps because Ruki was younger than him and yet in a higher position than him, because Ruki was more skilled than him, because Ruki was in better favour with the boss than him. Ruki really didn’t know what it was. But he knew Kai didn’t like him. “We are going in there undercover,” Kai announced as if it were final, and in his mind it obviously was. “We will infiltrate the rebel’s home and then blow them high in the sky. We’ll be in and out within a month and then we can eliminate the rest of the vermin in this city and be done with it.” Kai’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Tomorrow we’ll work on clothing and identities before we make our appearance.”  
  
Ruki opened his mouth to protest but instead was met with Kai putting his hand up in the air, silencing the white haired assassin. “That’s final, Ruki. As the strategist, my word in this plan is final. That is all,” Kai concluded, the tone of his voice clearly stating that they were done with this conversation altogether.  
  
Kai’s back was against the wall in milliseconds, Ruki having shot forward faster than the blink of an eye to press Kai against the cracked and eroding wall. The blade of a small but deadly dagger pressed against Kai’s jugular; with just a tiny flick of Ruki’s wrist the blade would pierce that vital artery and Kai would be done for. “The only reason you are still breathing-” Ruki seethed, stare wide and pinned on Kai. “-Is because Kyo would have my head if I killed his precious strategist. So you best watch your mouth, Kai.” Ruki’s lip curled slightly before he pulled back, sliding his dagger back into place under his shirt before stepping away from Kai.  
  
“We’ll do this your way,” Ruki concluded. “But if things look like they are starting to go south, I will leave you behind. Uruha too. If they discover us, I will leave you to your death and come back to finish our mission on my own. Got it?” Kai’s eyes remained narrowed for a few long silent moments before the brunet nodded his head sullenly, grunting quietly. “Good,” Ruki concluded sharply. “Then we have an agreement.”  
  
Ruki backed up a few steps without taking his eyes off Kai for a few moments before he turned and made his way back up to the main room of the house where all of their things were situated. He could hear Kai’s quiet footsteps follow after him. Well, at least they had reached… some kind of agreement. Even if it wasn’t totally in Ruki’s favour. That was ok. He would enjoy telling Kai to eat shit when it turned out that he was right. And it would happen. Ruki would be right and before he got out, he would specifically seek Kai out just to make sure the strategist knew that Ruki was right.  
  
As Ruki returned to the main room of their humble abode with Kai slinking in after him, Uruha looked up from the strangely in proportion gun he’d been polishing, pausing as he looked between his two team mates. “What was that about? Where’d you guys go?” He questioned, obviously looking at Kai for his answer first and he would be right to look there as well, because initially, Ruki had had no intention to answer.  
  
But Kai merely huffed and turned his head away and Ruki just rolled his eyes. “The adults were talking,” he concluded, not even looking at Uruha as he passed the blond and went to lie down on his own mat.  
  
“The-” Uruha sat up a little straighter, looking back and forth between Kai and Ruki, but in the end his gaze came to fall on the white haired assassin. “What do you mean the adults? I’m pretty sure I’m older than you by at least a few years. And besides-”  
  
“Uruha.” Kai’s voice cut in from his side of the room, though he was lying away from them; facing the wall. Still, Ruki could imagine the look the dreaded man would have on his face; one of exasperation, much like Ruki's own. “Do us all a favour and for once just… shut up,” the brunet sighed, sounding absolutely exhausted and just plain fed up beyond belief. But Ruki couldn’t help but feel slightly amused. At least Kai now understood his stance on his attempts at trying to get the brunet away from this ridiculous plan that he had concocted in that crazy fucking mind of his!  
  
Honestly. Ruki was starting to wonder if Uruha was the craziest one out of all of them. Or if he had been wrong from the get go.  
  
 *         *          *  
  
What followed was a few days of careful planning, mostly on Kai's part since he seemed to want to be the one to orchestrate the entire thing. Ruki and Uruha had gone out to do a little more scouting, mainly to get a lay of the land more than anything else. Because when they came back they relayed everything to Kai who then drew up more detailed maps of the area for them to all study. Ruki took particular interest in watching how their sentries worked, how they regulated their shifts. From what he could tell, the sentries rotated every three hours and he had rarely seen the same sentry twice. This lead the white haired assassin to believe that there were a good few hundred rebels living down there, possibly even closer to a thousand if he wanted to be particularly imaginative.  
  
If there really were that many it did not bode well for the three assassins. The more rebels there were the more likely they were to be caught out and Ruki was willing to avoid that at all costs. Yes, he would die for his cause, but not if he had the chance to get out, to spare his life and come back to finish the job in a way he knew would work. The white haired man still couldn't understand why they couldn't just get close enough to rig up some heavy duty explosives and blow the fuckers five miles in the air. No. They had to go undercover, they had to infiltrate and put all of their lives in danger.  
  
Kai was an absolute idiot.  
  
Luckily the pair didn't have any more run-ins though. For one, Uruha made sure they stayed well enough away from each other and they both avoided each other anyway. The pair only interacted when they needed to work or Ruki needed to study one of the newly drawn maps. Other than that they steered clear of one another which Ruki was grateful for and he could imagine that Kai was very much in the same position. It would seem they both now knew where they stood and Ruki was glad about that. Because that meant that Kai wouldn't whine about it when Ruki left him behind to die.  
  
It also turned out that Uruha could actually sew. And he was good at it too. Ruki was surprised that the blond weapon's specialist came in more handy than initially anticipated. It wasn't hard to go out and raid a few houses, find tattered remains of clothes and even some sheets left on old beds, to sew into clothes for them. It would look authentic at least, since these were the kinds of items the rebels used to make their own clothes anyway. Ruki was a lot less appreciative when Uruha insisted that he try his new clothes on...  
  
Since it was summer Uruha had sewn something that looked a lot like the summer attire of the rebels; surprise, surprise. And it meant that far more of Ruki's skin was on show than he would have liked. Luckily the pants were long enough, reaching his ankles, but they were lightweight and cool. The problem was the lack of shirt on his upper body. Uruha had sewn him something of a long sleeveless cardigan which reached the backs of his knees. There was no shirt to go underneath it, leaving his torso open and exposed. Ruki could admit that he didn't have the most amazing body in the world; he was pale and thin. But that wasn't so much the problem. It was more the fact that his body was left exposed to any kind of weapon.  He knew this was what was necessary to carry out their plan, but that didn't mean he was at all pleased by the outcome of Uruha's creative flare. He didn't feel so bad though when he saw that both Kai's and Uruha's outfits were rather similar; variations of what he was wearing.  
  
Finally the day arrived when they were to make their approach on the tribe. Kai had sat everyone down and gone through an extensive and detailed plan of how the operation was to work. Initially, at least. They all knew how rebels worked, how they acted, how they spoke, it was all a matter of putting it into practice now. They needed to come up with new names as well. The names they currently had were far too... new. Kai picked Yutaka, Uruha went with Kouyou and Ruki picked Takanori for himself. It would take some getting used to, especially calling each other by those names, but they had no choice.  
  
Once their names were decided and their briefing was over, Kai having explained their back story in detail, the three assassins stood from their positions and left through the window. Ruki had had to divulge some of his own true back story in regards to how his unique hair and eye colour came about so that Kai could weave that into their story. It wasn't hard though, the explanation mostly stayed the same. Though as they walked through the desolate streets Ruki couldn't help but focus on how uncomfortable and dirty he felt, but that was the idea. He also felt incredibly naked and not just because of the lack of clothes he wore. He felt naked because he'd not been allowed to bring any of his weapons; it was the same for all of them. Their weapons were far too advanced and clean to pass as rebel weapons. Hence Uruha had had to craft some as best he could. Ruki now possessed a lard hunting knife which he had strapped to his hip, he also carried a small leather pouch containing small rocks ground and sharpened into throwing knives. Kai and Uruha both had some variations of knives as well, Uruha also going a tad overboard as he normally did and crafting knuckle dusters for himself.  Their weapons, much like their appearance, were now rough and primitive.  
  
The sun was hanging low in the sky as they set off, though there was really no difference between daytime and dusk apart from the lighting. Ruki had once read about how the sky would turn all shades of pink and purple and orange during sunsets before the War, before the sky was covered in low hanging cloud. Now everything was forever cast in hues of grey. Ruki wished he could have seen a sunset. But for now, they were stuck with the dimming grey light as Kai lead the way towards the rebel camp in Harajuku. Although he would never admit it aloud, Ruki was nervous. Not because he may have to fight, but more so because he needed to blend in in an environment he was completely unfamiliar with. What added the nerves into the mix was how unprepared he was in terms of weaponry. He would need to reply on the stealth and agility skills he knew he had in order to escape if all went south. Ruki just hoped Uruha wasn't wrong about those guns the sentries carried.  
  
Night time had nearly fallen when the trio finally approached the rebel camp. Ruki could see sentries guarding what looked like the main opening to the underground dwelling. The building was mostly collapsed on the surface but Ruki could see the remaining letters of what once said 'Harajuku JR'. This was it.  
  
It also appeared as though one of the sentries had spotted them, because an alarm sounded and more men gathered at the entrance, totalling at what Ruki guessed might be around ten or twenty men. “Put your hands where we can see them!” One of them called out once the three assassins were a mere fifty or so metres away. From the corners of his eyes, Ruki could see Kai and Uruha do exactly as the sentry said. Though it took a rough nudge from Kai to have Ruki do the same. It went against every one of his instincts not to attack the vermin. He knew they were outnumbered though.  
  
Though their hands were raised in the air to show they meant no harm, the trio's pace did not slow. Ruki kept his face blank as they drew closer to the entry and the guards stationed at it. The details of the men's faces became clearer now. They looked... dirty. But Ruki wouldn't have expected anything else. A few of them had things to cover their faces, makeshift bandannas, cloth, a few even had either mud or some kind of paint. A shiver went up the white haired assassin’s spine.  
  
“State your business, which tribe are you from?” One of the sentries, one with his face half covered. “What do you want here?” Surely the man thought it strange that three rebels had appeared almost completely unarmed. Ruki knew he would certainly find it odd had their positions been swapped.  
  
“We're not from another tribe,” Kai spoke up, still holding his hands in the air. Ruki had to give him credit... he sounded sincere. The strategist was a good actor. “We're not from Tokyo. We come from further outside the city, where our old tribe lived. They were wiped out though,” he explained, almost firing off their plan word for word. The sentries looked among themselves warily, chattering quietly. “We're the only ones who survived. We've been walking for weeks, we heard of a large tribe in the city and we wanted to join you... safety in numbers and all.”  
  
The spokesman narrowed his dark eyes at them, what he assumed to be charcoal smeared around his eyes to make them look harsher. “And how can we trust that you're telling us the truth? Prove that you aren't from another tribe,” the man barked harshly, cocking his gun at them and for a moment Ruki worried that maybe Uruha really had been wrong; these things did work. Not to mention Ruki didn't know how they could prove they weren't there to cause trouble.  
  
“Other Tokyo tribes have brands, right?” Uruha piped up, causing Ruki to turn his attention to the blond. “They're branded with a hot iron, marking them forever.” Ruki watched Uruha square his shoulders as he looked the masked man directly in the eyes. “You can strip and search us top to bottom, you won't find one.” Ruki's face paled at the thought of being strip searched. Way to make him feel even more vulnerable. But if it was what got them inside, then so be it.  
  
The masked man grunted, eyeing Uruha for a moment before his dark gaze shifted over to Ruki himself and the smallest of the three stared right back. “What about this one?” The sentry asked, jerking his gun in Ruki's direction. “What's your story, freak?” Ruki clenched his jaw, nostrils flared slightly. “Well?” The man insisted.  
  
“Radiation,” Kai answered for him. “It affects us all, right? Like my other friend here and his hair colour, like yours too, it looks like. With him,” Kai nodded to Ruki. “Well.. the affects are just a little stronger. He was exposed to a high amount of radiation before even being born. That's our best guess, at least. His mother joined our tribe when she was towards the end of her pregnancy, so we just supposed that she must have been living in an area of high radiation.”  
  
Ruki swallowed, looking from Kai back to the masked man, who now looked a little more convinced. They all stood in silence for a few moments and it was clear that the sentry, who by now Ruki knew was clearly in charge here, decided what he was going to do. “Please,” Uruha's voice cut through the silence, causing the sentry, Kai and Ruki's attention to turn to him. “We're tired and we're hungry, we've been walking for so long. We'll work for our keep, all we ask is that you give us a chance.”  
  
Ruki could see the gears in the masked man's mind turning before he sighed, lowering his gun. “Come with me,” he grunted, gesturing for the three assassins to follow him. “You four, with me,” he instructed a handful of his men who formed a guarded circle around the trio as the masked man lead them into the camp. “I'll take you to the big man, let him decide what to do with you lot.”  
  
“Thank you,” Uruha said, but he only received a dismissive wave from the sentry.  
  
This was it, they were in. Now all they had to do was blend, earn trust and then as soon as they had freedom enough they were going to blow this place sky high and be done with it. Already, Ruki couldn't wait for this damn mission to be over.


	5. Chapter 5

“So...” Stated the gentle but still authoritative voice as the clunk of heavy shoes sounded over the wooden floors, the man in question pacing back and forth behind his desk. “You want access to my camp, my tribe's food and water supplies, you want us to give up at least two of our homes for you...” He trailed off, listing off the things that the trio had asked him for, whether it be directly or indirectly. “Above all you want me to trust... that you aren't from some rival tribe who sent you here to somehow kill all of us? Or me, at least.” The man turned to where the three assassins in disguise stood, all keeping their eyes on him as he moved.

 

“That's... a very blunt way to put it all,” Kai answered rather reluctantly. “But yes.” He lowered his head in a small bow as a sign of respect, Uruha and Ruki doing the same a moment later. “We're tired of being on our own, we'd like to belong somewhere again and feel safe.”

 

Ok, so Kai was a _far_ better actor than Ruki had initially thought he was, even more than when he had initially admitted that Kai was good. If he didn't know better, the white haired assassin could almost believe Kai's sincerity himself. But because he knew far better, obviously that was impossible. Brushing that aside, Ruki looked back at the man across from them. They'd been taken through the tunnels of what he now knew was the rebel's little underground city, to what resembled something much like Kyo's office. Except it was a lot less white and a little more on the dilapidated side. But it still contained a dark hardwood desk and shelves stuffed full of books behind it. There were a few gas lamps here and there which served as a decent light source for the room and Ruki imagined that was how most of this place was lit up. Unless they were a lot smarter than the assassin had initially thought and they'd somehow figured out some kind of generator system which allowed them to have electricity. Now _that_ would be something that'd blow Ruki's mind.

 

The man behind the desk hummed quietly, eyes scanning over the three men in front of him in a way that made Ruki kind of nervous. Or well, not really nervous. But it made him want to squirm in his seat. But he put some of it down to the fact that he didn't have the comfort of his assassin clothes and his hood. Or his katana...or any of his weapons. The whole situation was just one big bag of uncomfortable for him. Nevertheless, the man continued to stare and it took everything Ruki had to not let his brow twitch down in a frown.

 

“Alright.”

 

“ _Huh_!?” Came a surprised cry from the side of the room and Ruki's head snapped to the side, having forgotten that the masked guy who'd brought them in was even there. “Sir, you can't be serious! We don't even know these fuckers. They could be from one of the other tribes who keep threatening our territory. They could be spies from-”

 

“Enough, Akira,” the man cut the masked man off, holding up his hand to silence him; who Ruki now knew was called Akira. “These boys are just looking for somewhere safe to stay. Don't make me remind you about how _you_ were found.” The man in charge turned, looking pointedly at the masked man who merely grunted. “That's what I thought,” the boss grinned. Now that he was smiling he actually did look like a pretty nice guy. He was relatively young, with pale skin and a pretty out-there look. But most rebels liked to look different and 'out there' in different ways. Ruki guessed it had something to do with how they liked to identify themselves, make themselves unique. This one in particular had long black hair tied back into a high ponytail, but what made unique was that both sides of his head were shaved. He had a ring through his right eyebrow and on through the right side of his lip, as well as another ring through his left nostril. He was certainly unique.

 

“What are your names?” He asked.

 

“Yutaka,” answered Kai, giving the name he had chosen for himself. “And this is Kouyou,” he gestured to Uruha who offered a smile and a polite bow. “And this is Takanori.” Ruki locked eyes with the man behind the desk and eyed him for a moment before bowing his head, almost begrudgingly.

 

“Pleasure. My name is Takamasa, and as you probably already heard my friend over here is Akira. He's what I suppose is the equivalent to captain of the guard, head of security, whatever kind of term you want to go by. Basically, he runs the security aspect of things around here, looks after our sentries and all of that. He's a nice guy, he just... has a tough shell,” Takamasa chuckled, looking over at Akira who huffed and grumbled a quiet 'can it, boss'. “He'll show you to your rooms. Akira, can you take them to 3A? I know there are a good handful of rooms there that haven't been occupied in a while.”

 

“Rodger that,” Akira grunted, standing off to the side of the room with his arms folded over his broad chest, dark eyes narrowed as they swept over the three newcomers. Ruki didn't like him. And it was fairly obvious that Akira didn't seem too fond of them either.

 

“And if you could, Akira, would you let them know how things run around here in regards to work and meal times and such?” Takamasa said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his long legs. “That'll be all. I'm sure I'll see the three of you around at some point in time, but I would like to talk to you all about your role here and what kind of work you'll do. But that can wait a few days until you're settled. I'm sure you're all hungry and tired.” Takamasa offered them a warm smile and it was something that Ruki wasn't used to at all. He hadn't seen a genuine smile, aside from Uruha's, in a very long time. But then again... he found Uruha's happy, bubbliness a little off-putting to say the least.

 

*                      *                    *

 

The walk to 3A was a lot longer than Ruki might have thought, as it appeared that this whole underground subway thing covered a lot more ground than he thought it did; which was going to really suck when it came to mapping the place out. But then, in the same breath it also probably made it easier to stay under the radar. In such a big place they couldn't have eyes on them _all_ the time, although Ruki knew that they still needed to act as though they might be being constantly watched. Which he was sure would somehow happen; at least for the first part of their time there. They needed to lay low until they were trusted.

 

As they walked through abandoned corridors of the underground mall, which Ruki figured was attached to the old subway lines, he had figured out that the rooms Takamasa had been speaking about were actually old shops that used to be in business back before the war. They were mostly just the one room, which had been stripped of whatever debris had been in there and fitted with a bed, a small set of drawers, a desk, a chair, and a bookshelf. Ruki was sure each individual room had been added to to suit its owners own tastes, but those were the basics that were in there. Some of the bigger rooms were obviously for couples or small families considering they were a little larger.

 

The rooms they were lead to looked like most of the others that were made just for one person. There was nothing different or special about them and Ruki held in a sigh as he set his bag down on his bed before walking back into the hallway to meet Akira and the other two assassins. “Now,” Akira grunted, folding his arms over his chest as he shifted his eyes from one assassin to the other. “The rules here are simple. You don’t work, you don’t eat and you have your room privileges revoked,” the blond head of security stated. “I’m sure the Boss will go through all the different jobs you can take, but you’ll pick one and that’ll be your keep. Don’t get me wrong though, you get plenty of free time. You’ve just gotta work.” Akira reached a hand up, fixing his bandanna before continuing. “Meal times are three times a day; from six until seven in the morning, eleven until one and then five until about six at night. Do you have any questions?” Akira asked, looking like he was asking purely out of politeness and not out of willingness to answer any actual questions.

 

Akira looked just about ready to leave when Uruha spoke up, raising his hand in the air like a kid in school who needed to use the bathroom, and Ruki had to fight not to roll his eyes. “I do,” the honey blond said, eyebrows slightly raised as he looked at Akira. The blond sentry frowned and grunted, indicating for Uruha to go ahead. “How exactly do we get back to the... “common area” and where is it?” The weapon’s specialist asked, chuckling slightly.

 

At this Akira rolled his eyes. “Well, if you’re not gonna stick around here I can show you. But after that you’re on your own. I’ve got work to do and I don’t need three little newbies following me around,” Akira grunted and if he didn’t have that stupid bandanna on his face Ruki could imagine he had probably curled a lip in disdain at these so called... “newbies”. Oh, if only Akira knew how easy it would be for Ruki to leap at him and break his stupid fucking ne-

 

“Sure,” said Kai, cutting off Ruki’s train of thought. “That’d be great. I’m sure we can figure out our way around after that.” The strategist nodded his head, looking at Uruha and Ruki briefly before turning back to Akira. “Lead the way,” he prompted only to receive another grunt from Akira. Seriously, was this guy a fucking caveman or something?! He seemed to have a grunt for just about everything, much to Ruki’s immense irritation. He was a quiet man, but at least he could use actual words when he wanted to.

 

The walk to the common area didn’t take very long in terms of just general walking time. But winding through all of the different hallways and going up stairs felt like it took forever. This place was a whole lot larger than Ruki had initially anticipated! It was going to take longer than he’d like to map it out. It was at this moment that he was thankful for his impeccable memory and sense of direction, otherwise he was sure he would have gotten lost in such a large place. But Ruki had a photographic memory, and he was fairly sure Kai did as well. The only one he wasn’t sure about was Uruha, but then... it would probably look a little suspicious if they all knew their way around after only being shown once. So Ruki supposed that perhaps he may have to play dumb and “forget”where he was a few times. That shouldn’t be too difficult. That having been said though, he didn’t think he was as good an actor as Kai apparently was. But he’d do his best.

 

The common area was a large open room; what Takanori assumed had once been a cafeteria perhaps. There were tables and chairs, a kitchen area and even what looked like a little area with couches in it. Everything was rather old and unappealing in appearance, seeming as though it had all been scavenged out of old buildings and built from scrap metal – which it probably had. But it was a living space nonetheless. A few people in the room looked up at the newcomers as they entered, some murmuring and a few small children pointed. Ruki lowered his eyes a little, knowing that they would probably scare the shit out of most of the kids and make the adults uncomfortable. As much as he already hated this place he knew he needed to make as good of a first impression as he could.

 

“Well, this is it,” Akira shrugged, gesturing to the room. “Make yourselves at home. There’s books and shit over there, people to occupy you. Wander around wherever you want. If an area is off-limits there’ll be a sign and a sentry there, so there’s really no need for much of a tour.” Akira turned around to face them, locking eyes with each of the assassins one after the other. It was obvious that the masked man was still pretty damn suspicious of them, but he’d just have to suck it up and move on. Although his position and the fact that he didn’t trust them could possibly make things difficult for them to begin with, Ruki thought. But they’d deal with that later. For now they just needed to work on blending in.

 

  
“Thank you,” Uruha smiled genuinely. _Well... at least he doesn’t really have to act_ , Ruki though, glancing over at their blond weapon’s specialist. _He’s just weird and bubbly anyway. All he has to do is not tell them who we are_. In some ways Ruki wished he could be like that, but then on the other hand... he really didn’t want to be like Uruha. Honestly, the honey blond creeped him out. And that was really saying something considering his appearance!

 

Akira let out one of those infuriating grunts again and nodded at the tallest of the three. “No problem.” He looked like he was about to turn away but before he did he stopped and turned back. “One more piece of advice,” he said, eyes dark and voice low. “Stay out of trouble. We’ve had problems with spies and traitors before. You won’t like what happens if you turn out to be either one of those things,” the guard said, eyeing them a moment more before he did finally turn and walk way, boots heavy on the concrete floor as he left the three assassins standing in the middle of the common area.

 

“Well, isn’t he charming?” Uruha piped up and Ruki could practically _hear_ the smile in their weapons specialist’s overly-bubbly voice.

 

“No,” Ruki huffed, rolling his eyes before he looked up at Uruha and then Kai. His white eyes fixated on the strategist for a moment before he curled his lip and turned away. From behind him he could hear Uruha mutter to Kai about whether or not Ruki had ever heard of sarcasm before and it took every ounce of the white haired man’s strength not to turn around and rip Uruha limb from limb.

 

*               *              *

 

Being an assassin meant always keeping your cool, it meant being in control of your emotions, honing them in, holding them inside and not letting them get the better of you. Yes, Ruki was the best assassin their government had; a living breathing weapon. However sometimes – rarely, but still – he lost his temper. It was only under extremely pressing circumstances that it happened, but this seemed like a pretty pressing circumstance if you were to ask Ruki… Not only was he in completely foreign territory – if that were the only issue he would be fine – but he was completely surrounded by hundreds of enemies. He could be the best assassin in the history of mankind, but that wouldn’t stop hundreds of angry rebels from killing him. No amount of skill could help him.

 

Beyond that, Ruki preferred to work alone. There was a reason he never had company on his missions and it was because he just wasn’t good at working with people. He didn’t like people, he didn’t like talking to them, didn’t like spending time around them, he didn’t like trying to figure out how he was supposed to interact with different kinds of people. It was tiring and pointless. Ruki was trained to kill; that was it. So the fact that especially Uruha was so… happy-seeming frustrated Ruki to no end. In fact, he didn’t think he had ever met anyone so happy. How could one even be the slightest bit happy in this world? Ruki wasn’t happy, the other assassins weren’t happy. But happiness was a thing that rarely existed anymore, it was something that had been cast aside before the End War. Happiness didn’t have a place in their world anymore.

 

So _how_ could Uruha be happy?

 

Perhaps that was the problem… The rebels weren’t the problem at the moment, the rebel den wasn’t the problem… Hell, even Kai wasn’t the problem, at least he didn’t always have some kind of overly optimistic comment to follow everything. No, it was Uruha. Uruha was the problem and Ruki couldn’t continue to work with him. Unfortunately for him though, he didn’t have clearance to terminate Uruha from the mission. So what was Ruki to do…?

 

In his small fit of anger, Ruki hadn’t been paying attention to where he was walking and had apparently ended up in a little more of a secluded area of rebel den. It was funny… Ruki had always referred to the rebels as vermin, but now they really were like rats; living underground, scurrying through tunnels, making homes in little abandoned nooks. It was almost enough to bring a bitter chuckle forth from the assassin’s mouth.

 

That chuckle probably would have made it out if not for the faint _thwack, thwack_ of a human limb hitting what sounded like some kind of boxing pad or training dummy – the assassin knew the sound well. Ruki paused, using his highly trained ears to locate where the sound was coming from. It was only a few rooms away and as the white haired assassin drew closer to said room, he could hear soft grunts and panting accompanying the increasingly loud sound of hand to hand combat with padded leather.

 

Rounding the corner, Ruki found himself standing in the doorway of what appeared to be some kind of training room. It was fairly large - larger than a lot of the rooms Ruki had seen so far, aside from the common area – and to his surprise it was actually quite well-lit. _Generators_ , he thought. Around the room was all kinds of training gear, from tattered boxing gloves and pads to things like spears, swords, knives, whips, guns of all shapes and sizes, even fucking crossbows… Ruki’s jaw tensed as he observed everything. Where the hell had the rebels gotten all of this stuff? Had they made it all? This was certainly somewhere Ruki would need to bring – and he _hated_ to say it – Uruha. That man would know every single one of these weapons and probably their origin as well. Ruki would need to remember this room.

 

However, the weapons within the room were not the only thing that caught his attention. On the far end of the room was a man, t-shirt thrown aside leaving him only wearing a pair of loose leather-type pants; classic rebel attire. He had his back to Ruki as he bounced on his toes, keeping nimble on his feet as he relentlessly attacked a boxing bag hung from the ceiling. From where he was standing Ruki could tell the man had nice form, obviously having been trained by someone who knew what they were doing. The man swung punch after punch at the bag; he had a mean-looking right hook, and his roundhouse kick wasn’t too bad either. Ruki pursed his lips as he watched the man, wondering if boxing was the only skill he possessed.

 

Ruki straightened when the man stopped his attack, panting harshly as he stepped back from the bag, his posture relaxing. Grabbing a towel from the bench behind the bag, he wiped his face of sweat, continuing to catch his breath and as the man turned, Ruki caught a glimpse of a scar… long and jagged. He knew that scar. He had seen it the first night that he and the other two assassins had arrived in Tokyo. It was around seven centimetres long, starting from the outer corner of his right eye and ending just below his jaw. Ruki couldn’t remember the raven haired man’s name, but he knew he would find out.

 

The man finally spotted him once he turned around, steadying the boxing bag and stepping around it. His dark eyes found Ruki standing in the doorway to the training room and the assassin could clearly see the look of surprise and curiosity on the man’s face.

 

“You’re new,” he stated and Ruki had to stop himself from giving back some kind of snappy, smartarse response. “I think I’d remember seeing a face like yours around. Come to learn a thing or two?” The smirk that pulled at the man’s lips was infuriating. Almost as infuriating as Uruha was.

 

“No,” Ruki answered, shifting slightly.

 

Clearly the man had expected him to say more, but when he didn’t he raised his eyebrows. “Ok…” He drew the word out and Ruki knew instantly that this man thought he was a freak, especially with the way his eyes were dragging over the assassin’s appearance. “So, then… Can I ask how long you’ve been here?” The man picked up his shirt and pulled it on, slowly approaching Ruki and letting his hair down from the messy ponytail it had been tied in.

 

“In this doorway? Only a few moments. In this… camp-” It was a struggle not to call it ‘den’ or ‘nest’“-only a few hours.” Ruki answered, standing still as the man approached, now standing directly in front of him.

 

“Right,” the raven said, looking Ruki up and down, but in the end his dark eyes came to rest on Ruki’s own much more peculiar ones. Ruki expected there to be the usual question following that look. ‘Why are your eyes that colour?’. Everyone asked that question. “Well, I’m Yuu. I train all the new recruits, mostly only military boys but I do general defense classes for the everyday public,” he smirked. And Ruki wanted to slice that stupid quirk of his lips right off his face. “And your name is…?”

 

“Takanori,” Ruki answered blandly. His mind was still reeling about the fact that this man…this rebel thought that he was some kind of everyday rat. Oh, if only Ruki could show him. Usually he wasn’t so…rash. But with his temper already hanging by a thread, he was easily annoyed.

 

“Takanori, it’s a pleasure,” Yuu smirked. “Feel free to drop by every now and then. I can show you a thing or two about fighting. Little thing like you needs to know how to look out for himself.”

 

That did it.

 

“I have to go,” Ruki growled, before he turned on his heel and briskly walked away from Yuu before he killed the man and had himself as well as Uruha and Kai thrown out of the camp. Ruki’s temper was bad, but he would never let it, or anything, compromise a mission. Especially not one this important. All he could hope was that from now on he could stay as far away from Yuu as possible. The man was almost more infuriating than Uruha.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's been a while xD hahah. I've been trying to write a little more recently, I've been working on a few things. But life has been hectic. Between work, travelling back and forth from home and Japan, and moving house it's been hard. But him doin' my best~ I'll try to update more regularly. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you think.


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